2dogs
May 21, 2003, 07:12 AM
OK, this isn't really firearms related, just an example of how the gummint wants to do away with ANYTHING that goes "boom" or "bang" or even looks like it could.
And they don't have to confiscate guns- they can just increase the cost of guns , ammo etc until nobody can afford them- then what?
http://newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/5/19/163306
New Law Could Snuff Out July 4th Fireworks
The U.S. Congress and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are about to cause the skies over America to be a little darker this Fourth of July.
In just a few days, a new law takes effect that could force communities to call off that most American of American celebrations - Independence Day fireworks.
Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads (AAR), told NewsMax that individual railroads have decided complying with the Safe Explosives Act, sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., and signed by President Bush last November, is too expensive.
The railroads simply don't make enough money to cover the costs of compliance with the new law as it's being interpreted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF).
As a result, firework, shipments are being shifted to trucks, which could boost each shipment cost by about $8,000 per container, just enough to "make the difference between small communities either having a fireworks display or having to pass on it this year,” according to Fred Grucci of the family-owned Fireworks by Grucci, based on New York’s Long Island.
Moreover, the shift to trucks - intended to thwart terrorists - could in fact increase that danger. Highway hijacking is, if anything, easier than hijacking a huge freight train.
AAR President Edward R. Hamberger’s letter of protest to Attorney General John Ashcroft, with copies to other top government and law enforcement officials, apparently has fallen on deaf ears.
Hamberger - the Washington voice for the nation’s largest railroads - complains in effect that the railroad industry would have to create its own FBI in order to comply with the BATF regulations under the new law.
The railroad - whose industrial plant is spread out all over the landscape - would be responsible for making sure no single person or company involved in the shipments was ever convicted of a felony or dishonorably discharged from the armed services, or is an alien.
Taking the last point first, Hamberger notes that over 10 percent of the explosives imported to the U.S. arrive by rail on Canadian railroads using Canadian train crews (aliens).
In the 175-year history of the railroad industry, some railroads brought up on "robber baron" charges in the 19th century are still in business today - either under an original name or through their successor or merged railroads.
White told NewsMax correspondent Wes Vernon that under the law such convictions "could be from any time in the past and don’t have to have a security or safety relevance."
And it doesn’t stop there.
Not only must the railroads be responsible for the record of every rail employee, they are also to be held accountable for every customer in the export of explosives and every employee of that customer who has anything to do with the shipment.
Hamberger, in a classic understatement, calls this "problematic."
Bottom line: With cities and towns in financially dire straits and fireworks shipments being legislated out of the realm of affordibility, not to mention legality, be prepared for a possible fireworks-free Independence day in Anytown, USA.
And they don't have to confiscate guns- they can just increase the cost of guns , ammo etc until nobody can afford them- then what?
http://newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/5/19/163306
New Law Could Snuff Out July 4th Fireworks
The U.S. Congress and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are about to cause the skies over America to be a little darker this Fourth of July.
In just a few days, a new law takes effect that could force communities to call off that most American of American celebrations - Independence Day fireworks.
Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads (AAR), told NewsMax that individual railroads have decided complying with the Safe Explosives Act, sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., and signed by President Bush last November, is too expensive.
The railroads simply don't make enough money to cover the costs of compliance with the new law as it's being interpreted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF).
As a result, firework, shipments are being shifted to trucks, which could boost each shipment cost by about $8,000 per container, just enough to "make the difference between small communities either having a fireworks display or having to pass on it this year,” according to Fred Grucci of the family-owned Fireworks by Grucci, based on New York’s Long Island.
Moreover, the shift to trucks - intended to thwart terrorists - could in fact increase that danger. Highway hijacking is, if anything, easier than hijacking a huge freight train.
AAR President Edward R. Hamberger’s letter of protest to Attorney General John Ashcroft, with copies to other top government and law enforcement officials, apparently has fallen on deaf ears.
Hamberger - the Washington voice for the nation’s largest railroads - complains in effect that the railroad industry would have to create its own FBI in order to comply with the BATF regulations under the new law.
The railroad - whose industrial plant is spread out all over the landscape - would be responsible for making sure no single person or company involved in the shipments was ever convicted of a felony or dishonorably discharged from the armed services, or is an alien.
Taking the last point first, Hamberger notes that over 10 percent of the explosives imported to the U.S. arrive by rail on Canadian railroads using Canadian train crews (aliens).
In the 175-year history of the railroad industry, some railroads brought up on "robber baron" charges in the 19th century are still in business today - either under an original name or through their successor or merged railroads.
White told NewsMax correspondent Wes Vernon that under the law such convictions "could be from any time in the past and don’t have to have a security or safety relevance."
And it doesn’t stop there.
Not only must the railroads be responsible for the record of every rail employee, they are also to be held accountable for every customer in the export of explosives and every employee of that customer who has anything to do with the shipment.
Hamberger, in a classic understatement, calls this "problematic."
Bottom line: With cities and towns in financially dire straits and fireworks shipments being legislated out of the realm of affordibility, not to mention legality, be prepared for a possible fireworks-free Independence day in Anytown, USA.